Transmission of Quantitative Easing: The Role of Central Bank Reserves Jens H. E. Christensen & Signe Krogstrup 5th Conference on Fixed Income Markets Bank of Canada and Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco November 5-6, 2015 The views expressed here are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or the Swiss National Bank. 1 / 1
Motivation and Contribution The understanding of the transmission of QE to long rates remains at best partial, conceptually and empirically. Details of transmission matter for how to best design, communicate, and eventually exit QE programs. We posit that QE can affect long rates through reserve expansions per se , independently of which assets are purchased— a reserve-induced portfolio balance effect . For evidence, we study the SNB reserve expansions in August 2011. These did not involve any long-term security purchases, but nevertheless resulted in reduced term premiums, suggestive of portfolio balance effects. 2 / 1
The Existing Literature Focuses on Two Channels Signaling channel: QE announcements provide information 1 about current or future economic conditions or monetary policy intentions. Portfolio balance channel: CB purchases of long-term bonds 2 reduce their supply available for trading, and thereby increase (reduce) their price (yield)— a supply-induced portfolio balance effect . Underlying assumption: bonds of different maturities are imperfect substitutes for some investors (preferred habitat) and markets are segmented (Vayanos and Vila (2009)). However, as Bernanke and Reinhart (2004) emphasize, an 3 expansion of reserves by itself can potentially lead to portfolio balance effects. 3 / 1
Additional Transmission Channel: Reserve Effects (1) Example: Reserves and short bonds are near-perfect substitutes at the ZLB, but not perfect: Only banks can hold reserves. 4 / 1
Additional Transmission Channel: Reserve Effects (2) Pre � QE Post � QE Pre � QE � Post � QE Bank � Bank � Bank � Assets Bank � Assets Liabilities Liabilities Reserves Reserves Deposits Deposits Bank � loans Bank � loans Debt � issues Debt � issues Securities Securities Equity Equity Initial impact of QE: Bank asset duration is shortened. The extra reserves must stay in banks: Hot potato effect.... ... until longer-duration yields decline (prices increase) enough to make banks content to hold the extra reserves. 5 / 1
Additional Transmission Channel: Reserve Effects (3) Banks Central � Bank Assets Liabilities Assets Liabilities Reserves Equity Short bonds Equity Short bonds Deposits Long bonds Reserves Long bonds Other debt Other assets Other liabilities Other assets Non � Bank � Financial � Firms Assets Liabilities Deposits Equity Short bonds Debt Long Bonds Other assets Reserve effects are independent of the assets purchased. Can arise if assets are purchased from non-banks. QE in long bonds can have both reserve and supply effects. 6 / 1
Additional Transmission Channel: Reserve Effects (4) For outright identification in event studies, we need a case of QE-style central bank reserve expansions, but in the absence of long-term bond purchases. The Swiss reserve expansion program of August 2011 represents exactly such a case. 7 / 1
SNB QE-Type Announcements in August 2011 No. Date Announcement description I Aug. 3, 2011 Target range for three-month CHF LIBOR 9:05 a.m. lowered to 0 to 25 basis points. In addition, banks’ sight deposits at the SNB will be expanded from CHF 30 billion to CHF 80 billion. II Aug. 10, 2011 Banks’ sight deposits at the SNB will rapidly 8:55 a.m. be expanded from CHF 80 billion to CHF 120 billion. III Aug. 17, 2011 Banks’ sight deposits at the SNB will 9:05 a.m. immediately be expanded from CHF 120 billion to CHF 200 billion. Total expansion of reserves: CHF 170 billion, or 30% of GDP . Was achieved within a month. Achieved mainly through repurchases of short-term CB bills (liabilities) and FX swaps (assets). 8 / 1
Effect on Yields: Term Structure Decomposition Define the term premium: � t + τ TP t ( τ ) = y t ( τ ) − 1 E P t [ r s ] ds . τ t We follow the literature and make the following simplifying assumptions: Changes in policy expectations are associated with signaling effects; Changes in term premiums are associated with portfolio balance effects. To operationalize in daily data, we estimate arbitrage-free Nelson-Siegel (AFNS) models, see Christensen, Diebold, and Rudebusch (2011). 9 / 1
Data and Event Study Details Data and sample: Daily bond market data collected between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. Zero-coupon yields generated by SNB staff using a Svensson (1995) discount function. Out sample contains six maturities, { 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 10 } , from January 6, 1998, to December 30, 2011. Two-day event window: SNB made announcements around 09:00 a.m., which may be before or after data collection. 10 / 1
Decomposition of Swiss Ten-Year Yield Response Avg. target rate 10-year 10-year Event Model Res. next 10 years term premium yield Unconstr. -5 2 1 Unrestrict. K P -2 -1 1 -2 I 8/3/11 Indep.-factor -3 -1 1 -2 -1 1 Preferred Unconstr. -3 -2 -1 Unrestrict. K P 0 -4 -1 -6 II 8/10/11 Indep.-factor 1 -5 -1 1 -5 -1 Preferred Unconstr. 0 -20 0 Unrestrict. K P 4 -23 -2 -20 III 8/17/11 Indep.-factor -1 -17 -2 0 -19 -2 Preferred Unconstr. -8 -19 0 Unrestrict. K P 2 -28 -2 -28 Total Indep.-factor -3 -23 -2 -1 -25 -2 Preferred Term premiums declined in response to announcements. Very similar decompositions across model specifications. 11 / 1
Summary of Results We find 25 bps accumulated drop in the term premium of the Swiss ten-year yield. The drop was particularly large after the third "strongest" announcement. Only the first announcement is associated with signaling effects, as it affected expected future policy rates. This is consistent with the message. 12 / 1
Robustness Checks We use regression analysis to control for foreign developments, Swiss bond market liquidity, and broader financial market uncertainty. We look at intraday interest rate swap data to confirm findings. We look for other events to account for the results. We repeat the exercise using shadow-rate models. Finally, we note that all results hold up at the five-year maturity. 13 / 1
Conclusion Real-time estimation of dynamic term structure models combined with an event study suggests that SNB announcements regarding reserve expansions were associated with declines in term premiums of long-term bonds. Since the SNB did not acquire any long-term bonds, we interpret this as evidence of portfolio balance effects of reserve expansions on long-term yields. The transmission channel of QE to long-term interest rates may hence partly derive from the reserve expansions per se — a reserve-induced portfolio balance effect . The broader point is that transmission of QE is more complex than usually portrayed, and likely to depend on the mix of financial intermediaries, domestic financial market structure, and bank regulation. Need for more research to better understand these factors. 14 / 1
Some Tentative Policy Implications Implications for the design of QE programs: At the ZLB, long-lived asset purchases are not necessary for QE to affect long-term yields. Implications for the exit: Exit from QE through absorption of reserves without asset sales could nevertheless affect long-term bond markets. Implications for communication: Signaling channel appears to be absent when QE is not combined with forward guidance, see also Christensen and Rudebusch (2012). 15 / 1
Appendix 16 / 1
SNB Assets 600 Other assets August 3, 2011 Loans to Stabilization Fund Securities in CHF 500 Repo claims FX assets Gold Billions of Swiss francs 400 300 200 100 0 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 On the asset side, most of the expansion came about through foreign exchange swaps. 17 / 1
SNB Liabilities 600 Other liabilities August 3, 2011 Equity and provisions Liabilities in foreign currency 500 Other fix ed−term liabilities Reverse Repo SNB bills Central bank reserves Billions of Swiss francs 400 Bank notes 300 200 100 0 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 The amount of excess reserves expanded rapidly. Part of this expansion was achieved by buying back SNB bills. 18 / 1
US Treasury and Swiss Confederation Bond Yields 7 10−year yield 10−year yield 5 5 5−year yield 5−year yield 1−year yield 2−year yield 6 3−month yield 1−year yield SNB Announcements 4 4 8/3−9/6, 2011 5 Rate in percent 3 3 4 2 2 3 1 1 2 0 0 1 −1 −1 0 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 1998 1998 2000 2000 2002 2002 2004 2004 2006 2006 2008 2008 2010 2010 2012 2012 2014 2014 Through 2011 Swiss Confederation bond yields respected the zero lower bound. However, since the spring of 2012 this has not been the case. Thus, the Gaussian AFNS modeling approach appears warranted in the Swiss context—unlike what is the case for US data. 19 / 1
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